Adrienne Furrie Beauty

Product development is equal parts exciting, scary and hard!

Working on small refinements for I Dew, our hydrating face mist.

Prepping for a makeup lesson and responding to some common Q and A’s.

Based on a recent conversation:

Q: I’m almost 60 years old and I’ve never learned makeup, is it too late for me to learn, can you help me?

A: No it’s definitely not too late to learn, and yes I can help. It’s perfectly normal to be learning makeup at whatever age you are. Maybe it’s for the very first time or maybe you’re just refreshing a skill set that you haven’t focussed on for many years.

Q: I have hooded eyes. I think this means makeup is really hard for me?

A: No this is not the case at all, hooded eyes or deep set eyes are beautiful and normal and it’s just about learning the right techniques for your eye shape. What we often see in online tutorials are models with big wide round eyes and this is simply not the eye shape that the vast majority of us have. It just happens to be a good billboard for elaborate eye makeup styles.

Q: What about post menopause, I’m worried about things really changing. Do I need to wear more makeup as I get older?

A: No, it’s not about wearing more or less makeup. Those are personal decisions that are irrelevant of your age or your stage of life. It’s about understanding how to choose the right textures, and the right shades that are most flattering and easy to work with a different stages of life and your interest in how much time you want to spend on your makeup.

Q: What do I learn at a Makeup lesson?

A: We cover a full, simple, daily look of makeup from start to finish. Including concealers, foundations, eyes, cheeks, browse and lips. And most importantly how all of it fits together. You learn one cohesive look with flexible skill sets.

Why bother doing your hair and makeup to just go to the gym?

You’re just going to get sweaty and ruin it anyway right?

You bother because you’ll have a better workout.

You’ll have more energy. You’ll feel more positive and enthusiastic about yourself and your day.

A gym outfit you feel good in, with simple hair and make up has you looking good and feeling good and ready for the day ahead.

And who knows where the day will take you!

Makeup for a photoshoot with fashion leather goods designer Leela Jacobs.

There is a lot of behind the scenes planning and people that go into getting those great shots….

The designers creations, the focus of the shoot, which represents countless hours of work.

The mood board of the desired look and feel of the shoot.

The location.

The photographer (Kristy-Anne Swart)

The models. (Maia )

The makeup, the hair.

And then it all comes together for a captured moment in time.

As a makeup artist I enjoy partnering on creative projects such as these. It’s rewarding helping to tell a story through the art and skill of makeup.

If you’re someone who enjoys using makeup to express yourself and helping others to express themselves. Maybe doing makeup for creative shoots such as these - this might be the right time for you to upgrade your makeup skills with a professional makeup artist intensive training.

Open to complete beginners, all that’s required is a genuine drive to learn. 4 days, offered in person at Calgary | Makeup | Nails | Brows and live stream. We begin September 24th, details in the bio link.

Supporting your beauty from the inside out.

Daily food choices really add up over time and a daily habit I’ve had for as long as I can remember is nuts and seeds make up a decent portion of my diet every single day. My family calls it my bird seed ha ha 🙄

A two second Google search gives a solid list of the beauty (and overall health) benefits of building nuts and seeds into your daily food habits. And they taste delicious!

I find the plastic bags they come in crinkly and annoying so I always store smaller quantities in random glass jars. They look nicer this way and they’re easy to grab and use. Throwing some over oats or fruit and yogurt, onto a salad, into baked goods.

I like to keep the following around and just mix it up according to mood:

Ground flax, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, h**p seeds, walnuts, almonds, cashews.

Nuts especially can get pricey so as many of these as possible come through Costco. The rest are usually findable in bulk at Safeway, Superstore or Blush Lane. Keep unused bags in the freezer so they stay nice and fresh.

How do you decide what colours look good on you?

How do you pick your blush shade?

How do you choose your next nail polish colour?

Or your clothes?

I think there’s two equally important sides of working with colour.

You have your analytical colour theory side that helps you to understand what shades are more flattering and interesting on you. This is the world of professional colour draping and this is also what is important to get right with your core makeup essentials such as foundations, brow colours, and your concealer shades.

And then we also have the more emotional, mood side of colour - what do you like?! What colours fill you with joy or help you shift into a different mood state.

There is a time and place for both sides of choosing colour. Don’t lock yourself into only ever wearing “your colours”, play and have some fun. And also pay attention to what shades do seem genuinely more flattering on you, see if you can start to spot some patterns.

The art of fragrance.

I’ve always loved perfume. Like every young woman of the 80’s growing up in Calgary this meant fragrance oils from The Body Shop (White Musk or Strawberry oil anyone?). Graduating to Calvin Klein’s Eternity (along with at least half of my junior high classmates).

This eventually made way for more personal choices of Dolce & Gabbana perfume and random fragrance oils found at street markets. And now more recently my love affair with fragrances by and

So you can imagine how into this candle and diffuser making workshop hosted by I was. This was ALL about fragrance creation. I took this very seriously, there was note taking and a level of focus that only happens when I’m seriously in my element.

Milk Jar Candle Company put on the best experience and were so generous with sharing their expertise, I highly recommend this workshop. And bonus points if some of your favourite people also join in (love you mom and bro! 💝)

Here’s a great tip to creating your own fragrance as shared by Milk Jar: Tell a story … Create a feeling … Make a manifestation … Or just what you like.